Experience with allergies

[TurboPants]

My allergies kick my butt for ~3 weeks in May every year. Most OTC meds don't work for me and benadryl just turns me into a zombie. I'd probably end up sleeping 12 hours a day and getting lost on a daily basis, seriously. I have reduced my symptoms a good bit by removing dairy and white yeast from my diet as much as possible, but it's still rough sometimes. At home I can just go back inside and avoid pollen. When you're in a tent or hammock you don't have that luxury, it's a constant barrage of ragweed, trees and pollen.

I want to do a NoBo thru some day but it seems it would put you in the the height of pollen season in the south. I also want to avoid getting a trail name like RUDOLPH due to my nose heh! Maybe starting in ME and SoBo would be better since I don't have any fall allergies and I'd be starting after the worst of pollen season in the NE. If anyone has any seasonal allergy experience out on the AT I'd love to hear opinions and options that helped you. Thanks all!

[Rocket Jones]

Local honey. Supposedly it only a placebo but my doctor gives it to his kid who has terrible allergies.

[Slo-go'en]

If you can't control it with drugs, I'd say your stuck being a section hiker, hiking at times of the year when the problem is minimal. Really nothing wrong with that.

Two years ago I was hit pretty hard with allergies as I got into Virginia in early May. I thought I had a persistent head cold until someone gave me an antihistamine and cleared it up. Which was nice as I hadn't really gotten much sleep in the last week since I'd get all clogged up once I laid my head down. Hard to sleep when you can't breath.

Never had that problem before, but I believe the pollen levels were really high that year. Didn't have any problem this year in northern VA when everything was blooming.

[TurboPants]

I've heard of the raw honey deal, but I hear it's best to use raw honey and bee propolis from your local area to develop an immunity. I guess I need to try that now and find out if it helps at all.

Slo-go you hit the nail on the head. I'm already the worlds lightest sleeper and when allergies and snot clog me up I don't sleep. When you have to get up and walk a 25 miler the next day that can only go on so long. My goal was 110 days max due to job restraints.

The only other thing I can of is doing a flip-flop to avoid the tree pollen seasons in the north and south. But I'm not sold on that idea for a 1st time thru, plus the added cost of the extra trips back and forth.

[Old Hiker]

It was Claratin, twice a day for me for a while and I was STILL a mouth breather. Looking down on Fontana Lake and seeing an 8 foot wide band of pollen didn't help !

[Rocket Jones]

A few years ago I developed a sensitivity to OTC allergy meds that almost put me into the hospital. Now I can't take any of them, so the honey is what I do. A couple of teaspoons in my tea during the day does seem to help, and it definitely doesn't hurt.

[TurboPants]

One thing I tried this spring when it hit me was a couple tbsp of apple cider vinegar mixed with OJ. I can't drink that stuff straight up, I HATE vinegar. But that did seem to ease my symptoms when Claritin didn't work. Give that a try sometime. But I also put honey in my green tea during the day. But it's generic honey, not the raw stuff. Mostly because I'm too cheap to pay $12 for a small container of the good stuff. Guess if that actually helped it would be cheaper than allergy meds!